TEMPE, AZ – Besides providing fast electronic documentation, Desert Document Services Inc. says it can come to the rescue of overloaded loan processors stressed with work during a booming market.

TeamMate Collaboration, a new feature added to DesertDocs Web, one of Desert Document Services’ main online offerings, helps users balance loan processing work-loads among company employees regardless of their location. DDS executive vice president of sales and marketing, Jamie Glass, believes that nowadays mortgage professionals appreciate the global 24 hours a day, seven days a week access to DDS’ Internet operation where there were 2.5 million online transactions this year alone. The mainstays of the Internet services are DesertDocs Web and BrokerDocs.

"This particular feature allows users to disperse different work-loads and leverage their personnel throughout their local office, statewide branches, or even across the country," she said. For example, if a loan processing team responsible for certain loan files in Pasadena, Calif., needs assistance to be able to close the documentation on time, they can transfer those files over to another team, say, based in Orlando, Fla., to finish off on deadline.

"If one person is backlogged, another person in another group can help out to better balance the workload among processors, loan officers, or teams at the branch level," Ms. Glass said. "Reducing staff stress helps lenders reduce errors, improve speed and create borrowers that are lifetime customers."

In addition to increasing productivity, another benefit is that users can contact DDS for any loan-related problem or to access a file.

"So it allows multiple access of files at one moment in time," she explains. "You can have many people access the same file at the same time, and distribute files between groups or teams." Also it does not require users to maintain specific software in their desktop.

DDS services all types of clients including small individual brokers and large banks, correspondents, net branches and wholesalers- BrokerDocs for broker/correspondent users and DesertDocs designed to provide customized products, usually for the wholesalers.

"We manage over a billion changes a year, with all the forms and all the requests. It’s a huge undertaking to manage such a large library of loan forms for every loan formula of every type," she said. "But we are able to do that thanks to a product from Computer Associates’ Harvest that has enabled us to manage every information change, so that you don’t have people making changes in one place and then forget to make into another."

It is a quality control assurance program that also provides data security filters such as controlled log-in. Another layer of protection is activated through WebPost, a proprietary product that is offered free of charge to BrokerDocs’ users.

"It is a secured document delivery tool that enables users to download documents or post documents to WebPost so they can be accessed by any assigned title company or anyone responsible for printing documents," she explained. "e-mail is no longer secure to transfer loan information."

Types of documents/ forms provided include everything needed for a mortgage transaction, as well as forms for all the different types of loans such as conventional loans, fixed rate, adjustable rate, construction loans, government loans, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or lender and investor specific products and forms. Plus, DDS builds custom-made form templates and documents for specific programs.

The executive believes that regardless of how the market shifts, the mortgage industry has become much more efficient with it, so technology and e-mortgages are here to stay.

"We have been in the business for 20 years and had software as our primary way to process documents," she said. "But we’ve had no resistance in migrating people over to the Internet during the last three years. In fact 99% of our business now is done over the Internet."